Saint Mary's College - Spring 2010http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/tags/spring-2010
enBishop Salvatore Cordileone Visits Saint Mary'shttp://www.stmarys-ca.edu/bishop-salvatore-cordileone-visits-saint-marys
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<div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><span id="styles-0-0" class="styles file-styles large"> <img class="media-image" id="2" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/01_1.jpg?itok=y0xSgjQL" alt="" /></span></p>
<p><em>Bishop Salvatore Cordileone speaks in the SMC Chapel.</em></p>
<p>Bishop Salvatore Cordileone of the Diocese of Oakland made his first visit to Saint Mary's College on April 14 to deliver a lecture that was a reflection on Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical Caritas in Veritate and its possible application to Saint Mary's in particular and Catholic higher education in general.</p>
<p>Bishop Cordileone, speaking in the Chapel to about 200 faculty, staff, students and visitors on "Caritas in Veritate: Economic Justice and Human Ecology," said that "truth has to do with correct understanding of the human person."</p>
<p>"We must order our society according to this hierarchy of values — that is, order our society correctly — if we are to attain authentic development and enduring justice," said the bishop, who was as the fifth speaker in the three-year Episcopal Lecture Series on Catholic Higher Education sponsored by the Bishop John S. Cummins Institute for Catholic Thought, Culture and Action and the John F. Henning Institute on Catholic Social Teaching.</p>
<p>The bishop noted that the first structure in human ecology is the family founded on marriage, and said that the Catholic understanding of education is that the school's role is to assist parents in educating their children.</p>
<p>"This relationship between the family and education is very meaningful for undergraduate education," Bishop Cordileone said. "College is a time when young people emerge into the world and start to stand on their own. It is a time of critical transition into full adulthood."</p>
<p>A college must have a "robust marriage culture," the bishop said.</p>
<p>"This understanding is essential to the mission of a Catholic college, as reflected in Saint Mary's College's own mission statement where it pledges: ‘to affirm and foster the Christian understanding of the human person which animates the educational mission of the Catholic Church.' There can be no correct understanding of social justice without first understanding the family founded on marriage, the first vital cell of society. … Inclusive excellence actually proceeds from the family founded on marriage as the reflection of the relational unity of the Trinity."</p>
<p>Bishop Cordileone said it is not enough from a Catholic perspective that young people just be smart or ambitious.<br /> "We do them a great disservice if we teach them to be globally literate and culturally competent, but not virtuous; to be passionate, but not exercise moderation and self-restraint; to respect the integrity of the environment but not the integrity of marriage," he said.</p>
<p>In conclusion, Bishop Cordileone said, "As a Catholic institution of higher education, Saint Mary's College can serve the unique and invaluable role — as I truly believe God is calling you to do — of reversing our nation's slide toward self-destruction, serving as nothing less than an instrument of God's salvation by teaching our young people how to make the connections that promote a true human ecology."</p>
<p>Three professors gave remarks in response. Steve Cortright of the Integral Program and the philosophy department, suggested that the community read and discuss the lecture; Michael Barram, chair of the theology and religious studies department, asked about the relation between marriage and a just society; and Ted Tsukahara, the Integral Program director and an economics professor, commented on the role of ‘gift' in economics.</p>
<p>The bishop then took questions from several students. <br /> Afterward, the bishop met with some individuals who had their own questions. Many said they were pleased with the bishop's remarks; several asked him for more clarity on the Church's position related to marriage and its role in a just society; and others said they disagreed with the Church's position but appreciated the bishop's visit.</p>
<p>Before a reception in his honor, Bishop Cordileone blessed students who asked for his pastoral blessing.</p>
<p>After the reception, Bishop Cordileone celebrated Mass in the College Chapel.</p>
<p>Bishop Cordileone expressed his delight at visiting the College and meeting community members. He returned the following Sunday to confirm several students.</p>
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Thu, 01 Apr 2010 07:00:00 +0000cmd67067 at http://www.stmarys-ca.eduOut of This Worldhttp://www.stmarys-ca.edu/out-of-this-world
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<div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p class="credits"><em>By Erin Hallissy</em></p>
<p><strong>Students Enjoy Rare Opportunity to Research the Galaxies</strong></p>
<p><strong><span id="styles-10-0" class="styles file-styles large"> <img class="media-image" id="2" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/04outofthisworld.jpg?itok=OCvPsbS-" alt="" /></span></strong></p>
<p><em>Courtesy of the NAIC - Arecibo Observatory, a facility of the NSF</em></p>
<p>Undergraduates rarely have the opportunity to use the world's largest and most powerful telescope in Puerto Rico, but Saint Mary's is now among an elite number of colleges nationwide that have sent students to help research cosmic phenomena that was unheard of until the last two decades — galactic winds in the Milky Way and other parts of the universe.</p>
<p>In January Term 2010, senior Jillian Eymann and junior Seth Felix became the first two Saint Mary's students to go to the Arecibo Observatory — one of the most important national centers in the world for radio astronomy research. They were among some 30 undergraduates at 16 universities throughout the United States who participated in a research consortium funded by the National Science Foundation.</p>
<p>Their journey, and the research they and other SMC students will continue for years, was made possible through the professional connections of astrophysics professor Ron Olowin. Two years ago at an international cosmology conference in Venice, Olowin was invited by astronomers Riccardo Giovanelli and Martha Haynes of Cornell University to join the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA Survey. (ALFA is an acronym that refers to the wavelength range at which the instrument works.) The project is known by the nickname ALFALFA.</p>
<p>"Saint Mary's students had never had the chance to work with national and international researchers on this kind of project," says Olowin, who is on sabbatical this year but could not pass up the chance to travel to Arecibo for the research with his students. "It's almost a stratospherically rare opportunity."</p>
<div class="image-with-caption-align-left"><span id="styles-11-0" class="styles file-styles large"> <img class="media-image" id="2" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/04A_0.jpg?itok=66FFjmYb" alt="" /></span><br /><p><em>Jillian Eymann, Victoria Mendoza and Peyton Murray.</em></p>
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<h3><br /> Mapping the Sky</h3>
<p>Located in a large limestone sinkhole that cradles its weight, the massive radio telescope receiver — the size of 26 football fields — is the largest in the world. It is also a striking sight, with a huge 1,000-ton antenna with a triangular symmetry. In operation 24 hours a day, the telescope is available to scientists from throughout the world, including students working on master and doctoral dissertations.</p>
<p>The ALFALFA consortium is mapping a large area of the sky to detect neutral hydrogen gas (HI) in other galaxies. It is expected to detect more than 30,000 galaxies out to a distance of 750 million light years.</p>
<p>Olowin points out that it wasn't until 1923 that Edwin Hubble was able to verify the existence of other galaxies, and that the Milky Way was not the whole universe but only one of the trillion galaxies in it. Amazing technological progress in telescopes in the 20th century has allowed astronomers to confirm the existence of a wide range of extraterrestrial wonders, including pulsars, evidence of black holes and ripples from the Big Bang.</p>
<p>The ALFALFA consortium is looking at only recently discovered evidence of big flows of winds in our galaxy, the Milky Way. Using the Arecibo radio telescope, researchers — including the undergraduate students — can detect the flows of what Olowin calls "moving clouds of interstellar hydrogen."</p>
<p>"You see storms of moving gasses," Olowin says.</p>
<div class="image-with-caption-align-left" style="width: 340px;"><span id="styles-12-0" class="styles file-styles large"> <img class="media-image" id="2" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/04B_0.jpg?itok=FH1UjgD6" alt="" /></span><br /><p><em>The receiver at the Arecibo Observatory.</em></p>
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<h3><br /> Observing the Past</h3>
<p>The ALFALFA researchers, including Eymann and Felix, had a window of telescope time in the wee hours of several January mornings to observe the high-velocity gas clouds and even the rotation of distant galaxies, millions of light-years away. They also labored in a computational lab where they synthesized and analyzed the data they had gathered.</p>
<p>"The time we had there was pretty intense," says the 21-year-old Eymann. "We didn't sleep a lot."</p>
<p>The data in the telescope readouts "are not spectacular or sexy" looking, says Felix, 21, a physics major and math and computer science minor. However, they point to wondrous secrets that are deepening human understanding of the universe.</p>
<p>Eymann and Felix say the galactic winds they were able to detect are almost like a "star nursery" of hydrogen winds that are the precursors to the formation of stars.</p>
<p>"It's a way of looking into the past," says Eymann, who is majoring in physics with a minor in astronomy. "We saw enough to know it's beautiful."</p>
<p>Eymann was particularly impressed by the scale of the instruments they were working on.</p>
<p>"It's the size of the pyramids," she says. "Working on an instrument that is so huge was utterly impressive."</p>
<h3><br /> Invaluable Experience</h3>
<p>Felix, who describes himself as "really into particle physics," enjoys computer programming and mathematics, and he spent a lot of time learning the program language used to analyze the ALFALFA data. He says that he was more familiar with the program than other researchers they worked with in January, so he was able to help others.</p>
<p>Felix and Eymann relished the chance of meeting other undergraduate and graduate students, along with professors from throughout the country who may be able to assist them with future graduate studies of their own.</p>
<p>Olowin says that kind of experience is invaluable, and that other Saint Mary's students will be able to travel to Puerto Rico in future Jan Terms and directed courses to do research at the Arecibo Observatory.</p>
<p>"Saint Mary's has never had such a rare opportunity, especially involving undergraduates at world-class research centers," he adds.</p>
<h3><br /> Ongoing Research</h3>
<p>Although he is on sabbatical, Olowin was granted permission by the College to engage the students in a directed-studies course for the ALFALFA project during the spring term. This offered another opportunity for travel to Arecibo and other workshops, including one at Humboldt State University with another member of the ALFALFA team, astronomy professor David Kornreich.</p>
<p>Along with Eymann and Felix, senior Victoria Mendoza, 21, junior Peyton Murray, 20, and junior Kurt Thompson, 20, are in the course. Eymann, Mendoza and Murray went to Puerto Rico in late February for a week of training, observations and data reduction related to the ALFALFA research.</p>
<p>The data reduction included removing extraneous material, including the radar transmissions from the San Juan airport and global positioning satellites.</p>
<p>During the course of the analysis, Mendoza discovered in the data sets evidence of a previously undetected galaxy.</p>
<p>"I was looking at the data and I said, ‘This blob right here, that's so funny, that ought to be something.' (Olowin) said ‘that is something. It may be a galaxy'," Mendoza says. "I was so excited. I felt a rush that day and the next day, and I was trying to find as many as I could. I saw 20 other possible detections."</p>
<p>Olowin is just as excited as Mendoza by the ALFALFA research findings.</p>
<p>"Not only are we discovering a new class of galaxies — perhaps dwarf galaxies — we're actually discovering ones that haven't been identified before in the catalogues," Olowin says. "The scans enable us to actually measure their distance and rotation millions of light years away."</p>
<p>For a week, the students and Olowin worked night and day on the ALFALFA data and with other researchers on pulsar and radar observations of the ionosphere, using the most powerful radar in the world. The radar can measure asteroids and determine their composition.</p>
<p>Olowin says the students "were incredibly enthusiastic and hard-working. They hardly wanted to break for lunch or supper."</p>
<p>Saint Mary's ALFALFA grant has about three years to go, so more undergraduates will be engaged in research and courses, including future Jan Term classes.</p>
<p>"That's a real privilege. We don't get these opportunities very often," Olowin says. "We're sending our students to a world-class observatory and being exposed to ‘big science.' "</p>
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Thu, 01 Apr 2010 07:00:00 +0000cmd67090 at http://www.stmarys-ca.edu12:$4http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/124
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<div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><em>By Claire Becker</em></p>
<p>To conserve ice,<br /> I rub it on burned fingers</p>
<p>before putting it in my drink.<br /> The egg burning still.</p>
<p>Lightning and sun on the leaves,<br /> blue-gray behind the brownstones.</p>
<p>Too powerful, the bird call<br /> outside, above the chainsaw.</p>
<p>Engine; bark; brakes:<br /> constant sounds of the city,</p>
<p>not often helpful.<br /> I've brought no clothes</p>
<p>for a funeral. I'm rationalizing<br /> a death. This place</p>
<p>becomes my home. Brooklyn,<br /> the brownstone.</p>
<p>Home, you go insane.<br /> My head, a virtual idea file.</p>
<p>Get a microphone.<br /> It empties all the time.</p>
<p>Conserve the ice<br /> when it's hot outside,</p>
<p>when you don't want to leave.<br /> I make a large mess.</p>
<p>Red bricks against<br /> green leaves.</p>
<p><em>Claire Becker MFA '06 teaches high school at the California School for the Blind and co-edits the journal </em>RealPoetik<em>. Her first book, </em>Where We Think It Should Go<em>, is forthcoming from Octopus Books. She was featured in the Creative Writing Reading Series on May 5. This poem originally appeared in </em>The Cultural Society<em>.</em></p>
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Thu, 01 Apr 2010 07:00:00 +0000cmd67087 at http://www.stmarys-ca.eduSweet!http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/sweet
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<div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><strong>Saint Mary's Swaggers Onto the National Stage in the NCAA Tournament</strong></p>
<p>After knocking off Gonzaga in the WCC Championship on March 8, the men's basketball team swaggered into March Madness with enough charm and attitude to make even casual basketball fans, both nationally and internationally, want to know more about the College. Who is Saint Mary's, and how did it catapult so quickly to the national stage? And what secret ingredients did the College have to become one of the feel-good stories of the NCAA Tournament?</p>
<p>The dash to center stage — led by the loquacious Omar Samhan, the quick-thinking point guard Mickey McConnell and the team's crew of five Australians, brought the College recognition and acclaim not just on the basketball court but throughout the campus. The fever peaked after thrilling upsets of Richmond and Villanova in Providence on March 18 and 20. <br /> Through stories in papers like the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Sydney Morning Herald, readers discovered what Gaels already knew — that the College in the East Bay is a place where success is celebrated, where the community is united, where hard work and unselfish commitment to each other pays off and where the future remains bright.</p>
<p>Broadcasters and bloggers were captivated by the hard-working, old-style, unselfish team play on the court, and with the support of the team from fellow students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members. Sweet Sixteen viewing parties drew crowds to AT&amp;T Park in San Francisco and Dryden Hall on campus, and other alumni and fans gathered in homes and bars throughout the country and in foreign lands where Gaels live, including the Philippines and Australia.</p>
<p>After a disappointing loss to Baylor in the Sweet Sixteen, the Gael Nation mourned, then held their heads up high and looked to the future.</p>
<p>"The overall feel of the team is ‘what a great year, what a special year,' " said head coach Randy Bennett. "I'm just thankful to be able to coach a group of guys like that."</p>
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Thu, 01 Apr 2010 07:00:00 +0000cmd67086 at http://www.stmarys-ca.eduA Passion for Performinghttp://www.stmarys-ca.edu/a-passion-for-performing
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<div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><em>By Jesse Hamlin<br /> Photography by Toby Burditt</em></p>
<p><em><span id="styles-7-0" class="styles file-styles large"> <img class="media-image" id="2" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/02C_0.jpg?itok=wdis2yai" alt="" /></span></em></p>
<p>Lino Rivera is dancing comically to the beat, swinging his arms, bobbing his head. He's grooving with the students in his Saint Mary's "Extreme Musicianship" class, talking with his body as they bang out syncopated rhythms on xylophone keys and hand drums. It's a rain-soaked morning in January, but the little room in Syufy Hall is lit up by Rivera's energy.</p>
<p>"You have to feel this downbeat," says the pony-tailed music professor, a passionate pianist and teacher whose joyous vibe is contagious. "You stomp, you grunt, I don't care what you do. You have to physicalize it. Otherwise you're not going to feel it.''</p>
<p>A few minutes later, during an ear-training exercise, Rivera sits down at the piano and messes with the harmony of "Here Comes the Bride," hitting a jarring diminished chord. "What? What? What was that?" he asks with a befuddled face that cracks up the class. "Make sure when you get married that you pay the musicians well so they don't play a diminished or augmented chord."</p>
<p>Rivera figures if his students are having as much fun as he is, they're paying attention and learning. Whether he's teaching or playing, "the goal is to just live music," says the 47-year-old. A much-admired soloist, chamber musician and accompanist, Rivera grew up in the Philippines, where he won his first competition at age 8 and appeared with the Metro Manila Symphony Orchestra at 17. He's prized by composers and audiences for the sensitivity and zeal he brings to his performances of new and challenging music.</p>
<div class="image-with-caption-align-right"><span id="styles-8-0" class="styles file-styles large"> <img class="media-image" id="2" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/02_2.jpg?itok=OJFfMp3N" alt="" /></span></div>
<p>An associate professor at Saint Mary's since 2006, Rivera arrived on campus a decade ago as a choral accompanist.</p>
<p>"Within six months, we realized we had a gold mine here," says composer and music professor Martin Rokeach, who chaired the Performing Arts Department until Rivera succeeded him last year. "The singers in the choir went crazy for him. We asked him to teach one class, music appreciation, and he was dynamite."</p>
<p>Named an assistant professor in 2002, Rivera now teaches everything from theory and music history to symphonic music, Medieval and Renaissance music, chamber music and private piano instruction. His students relish his seriously playful teaching style.</p>
<p>"He's really energetic and entertaining, and that makes it fun," says Elisa Fischer, a senior who's majoring in English with a music minor. A violinist and violist, she got an intensive dose of sight reading and ear training in Rivera's Jan Term class. "I've never had a teacher teach theory this way before, and I find it much easier to understand. He's so excited about it, he makes you excited about it. I've heard him perform at faculty recitals, and he's as passionate playing as he is teaching. He jumps up and down at the piano."</p>
<p>Aaron Rivera (no relation) also gives high marks to the kinetic teacher. "The thing I like most is that he plays music and connects it what we're learning," says the sophomore nursing student, a guitarist. "He puts things into perspective. He not only tells us something, he shows us where we could do it in a song."</p>
<p>Rokeach, who has heard Rivera play in many contexts over the years, is struck by the pianist's musicality and interpretive depth. Rokeach can still recall Rivera's stirring performance of contemporary American composer Frederic Rzewski's fiendishly difficult "North American Ballads," at San Francisco's Green Room in 2005 for Composers, Inc., formed to present the music of living American composers. Then there was Rivera's flawless playing of Beethoven's famously challenging "Hammerklavier" Sonata at Villa Montalvo in Saratoga two years later. Both works are featured on the CD that Rivera recently recorded and is marketing.</p>
<p>"There are a lot of great pianists out there, but Lino is fearless," says Rokeach, a Composers, Inc., artistic director who's had several pieces premiered by Rivera. "He will go after these absolutely frightening works, and kill himself working on them. With the Rzewski, for example, he was practicing every night until 2 or 3 a.m. He'll work his heart out for some performance, then a week later he's back at it, doing something new."</p>
<p>Rivera has always had that kind of discipline and energy. He grew up on a rice farm in the Filipino village of Niugan, 75 kilometers northeast of Manila. There was no running water or electricity. After school, Lino, the fifth of six children, helped his parents in the garden, fed the chickens, ducks and pigs, did his homework and then practiced the piano.</p>
<p>"The piano doesn't require electricity to play," says Rivera, sitting in Café Louis at Saint Mary's. A demonstrative man with a trim moustache and easy laugh — he punctuates his words by popping his eyes or shrugging his shoulders or waving his arms — he's wearing a purple pullover, black jeans and hiking boots (he'd taken off his black beret). "There was no TV, no Internet. What do you do after feeding the animals? You play the piano."</p>
<p>All his siblings played, but only Rivera went pro. His father, a music lover who plays the banjo, took him to Manila on weekends for private lessons. He won the first of many competitions at 8, playing Clementi's Concertina in C Major from memory. The prize was a year of free lessons from a piano professor at the University of the Philippines. Rivera's gifts eventually caught the attention of the dean of the University of Santo Tomas Conservatory of Music, who provided him a scholarship to study there.</p>
<p>But as much as he loved music, Rivera was also mad about science. He set his sights on becoming a physicist or engineer, figuring he'd play music for pleasure. He entered Manila's prestigious Mapua Institute of Technology, which trains engineers. After the first year, Rivera knew he was in the wrong place.</p>
<p>"Every time I'd attend a concert, I'd say, ‘This is what you should be doing,' " Rivera recalls. "That's when my heart and soul said, ‘you are a musician.'"</p>
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<p>He went back to studying music full-time at Santo Tomas, won more piano competitions, did recital work and played concertos with the major Manila orchestras, sometimes on radio and television. After receiving his master's degree from the University of Hawaii, Rivera received his Ph.D. in piano performance at the University of Maryland at College Park. He couldn't bear the cold winters, so he moved to the Bay Area in the mid-1980s.</p>
<p>"I had relatives in Daly City, the biggest Filipino community outside of Manila," says Rivera, who lives in Moraga with his wife, Adriana, a classical guitarist turned music historian, and their 15-year-old daughter, Celestine, who sings with the San Francisco Girls Chorus. "I didn't have a job. I went to music stores, like Tupper &amp; Reed in Berkeley, and looked at the bulletin board announcements. Someone needed an accompanist here, a teacher there."</p>
<p>His first steady gig was as a part-time accompanist with the Girls Chorus. He began accompanying the Piedmont Children's Choir, too, then Voci, the women's ensemble. Rivera's name got around. He taught piano, music history and theory at Diablo Valley College. Known for his versatility and simpatico style, he became a ubiquitous presence on the Bay Area music scene. He's equally adept playing with symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles, backing choirs and giving solo recitals on campus and around the country.</p>
<p>Rivera never seems to stop. He's currently an accompanist at several East Bay churches, including the Mount Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church. In December, he performed Liszt's virtuosic Piano Concerto No. 1 with the California Youth Symphony. ("He melded with the ensemble better than many a pianist I've seen with the San Francisco Symphony," Rokeach raved in an e-mail to SMC colleagues.) He capped it with an ear-opening encore: the rhythmically bewitching "Ritual Dance" by one of his Filipino composition professors, Bernardino Custodio.</p>
<p>Last spring, Rivera played the world premiere of Bay Area composer Robert Greenberg's "Tempus Fugit" for Composers, Inc., one of many new works he's brought to life. In May, he plays another notoriously difficult piece, Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 2, with the Sacramento State University Symphony. He calls it one of the monumental masterpieces of the entire piano repertoire.</p>
<p>"I love challenges. It bores me to death if things are too easy," Rivera says. "When I'm working on things that are challenging, it makes me probe deeper into myself. I find who I am. … The deeper I get into myself, the more I connect out there, to the whole universe, if you wish."</p>
<p>In the midst of playing, Rivera says, "You don't think about the difficulty, you're in the vortex of it; you are riding the wave, and you forget time passing by. Challenging pieces have the capability to put me into that different zone, that dimension, where time just stops. It's like you're in a trance."</p>
<p>The passionate pianists inspire Rivera: the late Vladimir Horowitz, Arthur Rubinstein and Emil Gilels, and the still-active Ivo Pogorelich and Evgeny Kissin.</p>
<p>"Why bother if you're not going to pour whole soul and heart and life and mind into it? Unrestrained, give it all, no holds barred, give it to me!" says Rivera, who listens to jazz and blues to relax. His favorite pianists, he adds, "have a sound that's very special to them. You could compare it to food. There are of a lot of spaghetti sauces, but there are special spaghetti sauces that have their own identity. I'm not trying to imitate their sound, but get my own sound, to find out what my spaghetti sauce is going to taste like."</p>
<p>For Rivera, teaching is an essential ingredient in his multifaceted musical life. He thrives on the give-and-take with his students and colleagues at Saint Mary's, whose bucolic setting reminds him of where he grew up. There have been times when Rivera worked solely as a concert pianist — practicing most of the day, going from city to city — and he found it a lonely existence.</p>
<p>"I have a lot of social interaction with people here — especially young people, who are open-minded," Rivera says. "I have colleagues here in the profession and the humanities. They all enrich me. I feel at home here. It's not only focused on music. At a regular conservatory, all you talk about is Chopin and Bach and Beethoven, this performer here and that performer there. Here, we can talk about subjects such as philosophy, history, sciences. I have a wider breadth and scope."</p>
<p>Rivera catches a question that makes him pause. What's the most important thing he can teach his students?</p>
<p>He ponders for a few moments then replies: "To discover who they are. And once you discover who you are, enrich what you have found, polish your talents. And then share what you have."</p>
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Thu, 01 Apr 2010 07:00:00 +0000cmd67085 at http://www.stmarys-ca.eduLiving in a Danger Zonehttp://www.stmarys-ca.edu/living-in-a-danger-zone
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<div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><em>By Patricia Yollin</em></p>
<p><em><span id="styles-4-0" class="styles file-styles large"> <img class="media-image" id="2" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/01fire.jpg?itok=FESTFEEC" alt="" /></span></em></p>
<p><em>The 1991 East Bay hills fire killed 25 people and destroyed 3,000 homes.</em></p>
<p>The green hills around Saint Mary's will soon turn brown. Wildfire season is coming. It is a constant for anyone living in California, as certain and inevitable as summer giving way to fall.</p>
<p>"We've always had fire, since the beginning of time," says Louis Vella, who retired in 2008 as administrative chief and fire marshal of the Redwood City Fire Department. "And in this state, whether the fires are fanned by the Santa Anas of Southern California or the winds swirling around Mount Diablo, they will happen. Nature takes care of itself. The problems occur when you have property and lives involved."</p>
<p>Vella was talking about the urban-wildland interface, which he knows well. He was involved with 600 to 700 fires in 24 years, coordinating resources, assisting with traffic control and evacuations, monitoring the progress of blazes, documenting scenes and determining causes.</p>
<p>He thinks about the risks posed by that interface every time he visits Saint Mary's College, where he received a bachelor's degree in management in 1989.</p>
<p>"Moraga and the area around the College are susceptible to devastating fires," says Vella, 57, of Belmont. "In the summer, when it's scorching hot and you see the heat lift from the ground, you go, ‘Oh my God, I hope the fog comes in quickly.' "</p>
<p>Over the decades, the Saint Mary's community has been profoundly affected by fire. For faculty, staff, students and alumni, the connections run deep.</p>
<p>Although wildfire devastates landscapes, it also transforms them. It often does the same thing to the human psyche. People learn lessons. They look at the world differently. They realign their priorities. Some become more anxious, but also more equipped to deal with the unexpected. Others turn outward, embracing volunteerism.</p>
<div class="image-with-caption-align-right"><span id="styles-5-0" class="styles file-styles large"> <img class="media-image" id="2" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/01B.jpg?itok=f2x2d6Y4" alt="" /></span></div>
<p><em>Joelle Rowley and her cherished shelter blanket.</em></p>
<p>Joelle Rowley, a sophomore at Saint Mary's, is only 19, but has already been through four fire threats. During the first, an October 2003 blaze that came within two blocks of her house in the Scripps Ranch section of San Diego, she and her family were evacuated for a week. During the second, when she was living in La Jolla four years later, she fed and watered rescued horses at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.</p>
<p>"Watching the community come together was one of my favorite things about the first fire," Rowley says. "I remember playing chess with a 21-year-old and beating him. And I had a dirty gray blanket on my back. I pretended to be a hobbit."</p>
<p>She still has that blanket, and the clothes she wore at the evacuation center. She also has two emergency kits she keeps next to her bed. She remains wary of potential dangers.</p>
<p>"I won't go on BART unless I have a buddy. And I won't go anywhere alone off-campus, knowing what can happen," says Rowley, whose birthday is Sept. 11. "A lot of bad things happen to me."</p>
<p>Rowley's experience with fire made her more prepared. Other Saint Mary's community members discovered what was most important in their lives. Cheryl Kelly is among several who lost their houses 19 years ago in the East Bay hills conflagration that destroyed thousands of homes and killed 25 people.</p>
<p>"I learned that stuff does not define people," says Kelly, administrative assistant to interim School of Science Dean Roy Wensley. "I don't identify so much with personal items the way I did at one time. I guess it's self-preservation. I don't want to lose any more of myself if I can possibly help it."</p>
<p>On Oct. 20, 1991, Kelly and her husband flew into San Francisco around 7 p.m. after a weekend in Virginia. They raced to Oakland after hearing about the huge wildfire. Near the Claremont Hotel, they found a van manned by a firefighter and gave him their address. He turned page after page in his binder without finding it listed.</p>
<p>"I told him it was in the Hiller Highlands," Kelly recalls. "He says, ‘I'm sorry. It was one of the first places to go.' I remember screaming, ‘That can't be, that can't be. That's my life.' I'll never forget that feeling."</p>
<p>The next day they hiked to where their home had been.</p>
<p>"There was nothing left," Kelly says. "It was like a bald hill."</p>
<p>Kelly's car was a silver puddle of melted metal. But a cement squirrel that had been a garden ornament survived.</p>
<p>"We called him Smoky, and he's still with us," she says. Her father, meanwhile, collected a dozen yellow tiles from her fireplace, strewn through the rubble, and made them into a tray that she treasures. Other treasures were forever gone — her husband's military memorabilia, a Tiffany ring and a malachite necklace her aunt had given her, and, worst of all, their two Himalayan cats.</p>
<p>The bad memories, however, are balanced by good ones, including help from the Red Cross, a "kitchen shower" thrown by her husband's company, and a stranger's offer of hospitality.</p>
<p>"When you are hurting and you are a victim, the kindness of people is so touching," says Kelly, 63, who now lives in Walnut Creek.</p>
<p>Much like Kelly, professor Barry Eckhouse, director of technology and online learning and the hybrid executive MBA program, became a minimalist after his Oakland home went up in flames in the 1991 fire.</p>
<p>"If something happened now, I'd be the last person to grab stuff," says the 60-year-old Moraga resident. "It really doesn't matter. It's OK if the high school yearbook is gone."</p>
<p>His split-level house, which was in the last stage of remodeling, was near the blaze's point of origin. He knew that there had been a fire the day before and had seen smoke hours earlier, but he was unconcerned — until two neighbors banged on his door, screaming.</p>
<p>"The back of my house was on fire, and the trees on the right-hand side of the house were on fire," Eckhouse says. "Things had really accelerated in a short time."</p>
<p>He snatched up his wallet, car keys and his cat Moneypenny. As he drove away, he saw a neighbor across the street trying to hose down her roof.</p>
<p>"Her husband yelled, ‘It's not that kind of fire.' I remember that distinctly," Eckhouse says. "The fire moved so fast. It was jumping like a squirrel. I thought, ‘How do you corral or control this?' And the answer is, ‘You don't.' "</p>
<p>Driving down the hill through blinding smoke and flaming tumbleweeds, Eckhouse wondered whether he should let Moneypenny out of the car.</p>
<p>"I didn't think we'd make it through," he says. "It didn't look good. And they can get in places we can't."</p>
<p>They stuck together. But Eckhouse never again saw his two other cats, Captain Wow and Skippy, who were outside when he fled the fire. For months, he visited shelters daily, set up feeders and called veterinarians' office. At night, up in the hills, he could see eyes shining in the dark because so many felines had retreated there.</p>
<p>Eckhouse lost his fountain pen collection, valuable Japanese art and several hundred pages of a book he was writing that later became Competitive Communication. But he only really regretted losing the cats.</p>
<p>"I don't drive Fish Ranch Road without thinking I might see them," he says.</p>
<p>After the fire, Eckhouse moved to a gated community with a golf course in San Ramon, even though he had no interest in gated communities and hated golf. He now suspects he was looking for stability.</p>
<p>He got together a couple of times with others on campus who had been through the fire.</p>
<p>"I was envious of how much time they had," he says. "They talked about gathering their things together, putting them in cars. That's what I remember — how incredibly quickly things happened."</p>
<p>He remains changed by the experience, even as he feels fortunate to be alive. Now, he doesn't think of ownership in the way he once did — for years he had almost no furniture. And he has far less faith in emergency services, airline maintenance, FEMA and other things he took for granted before the 1991 firestorm.</p>
<p>"What it impresses on you is the reality of catastrophic events," Eckhouse says. "A lot of folks go through the day the way I used to go through the day: ‘If things happen, they happen in Haiti.' I don't think I assume the worst, but I'm mindful of it in a way I wasn't before."</p>
<p>More people need that sense of vulnerability, says Frans Hoffman, who works in the College's computer and technology services and is coordinator of the Lamorinda Disaster Animal Response Team, which deploys to wildfires and other disasters to rescue and shelter animals.</p>
<p>A few years ago, the 60-year-old Moraga resident says, an emergency drill took place based on the scenario that a wildfire had started in the Las Trampas Regional Wilderness and swept down to the Saint Mary's campus and Moraga, with one main road in and out. He thought of that drill when he volunteered in 2008 at a wildfire in Butte County and saw the ravaged town of Paradise.</p>
<p>"The road there is very similar to here," he says. "And the canopy had caught fire. That was such an eye opener. I was vaguely aware we had a wildfire issue, but then I recognized it could be in our own backyard."</p>
<p>Hoffman teaches a Community Emergency Response Team class at Saint Mary's. After his stint in Butte County, he helped change the curriculum to alert people to what fire can do. And he is more mindful of the potential for disaster; he keeps important documents in a fire-proof safe and key information on his thumb drive.</p>
<p>"If any place is the urban-wildland interface, this is it," he says, glancing at the hills around campus as he headed to the class. "And it's not an enviable position to be in."</p>
<p>Fairfield Fire Chief Vince Webster, 47, a 1999 graduate with a bachelor's in management, couldn't agree more.</p>
<p>"We as humans are complacent," he says.</p>
<p>In 27 years as a firefighter, he has fought hundreds of blazes, including the 1991 East Bay hills fire.</p>
<p>"If you drove through the hills today, you'd see the same problems," says Webster, ticking off a list that included narrow roads, overgrown vegetation, poorly maintained homes, clogged rain gutters and firewood stacked against structures.</p>
<p>"The prevention part of our job is truly challenging. You have to get folks motivated. And in the United States, we have the ‘it can't happen to me' mentality."</p>
<p>In the past several decades, he says, humans have put themselves in danger by choosing to move into wildland-urban interface areas.</p>
<p>"My concern is that we're increasing the risk considerably, while not doing enough to handle that risk and face it head on," Webster says.</p>
<p>Former firefighter Joseph Thurin, a 1989 management graduate, says, "We used to just call them wildfires, and all of a sudden, there are people out there."</p>
<p>When he retired in 2007, after 27 years, he was senior line captain with the Benicia Fire Department.</p>
<p>"When you're a young firefighter, you want to go to a fire every day," says Thurin, 55. "But then you get older and you start to witness what it does to people."</p>
<p><span id="styles-6-0" class="styles file-styles large"> <img class="media-image" id="2" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/01A_0.jpg?itok=yGBFk_vN" alt="" /></span></p>
<p>Ian McQueary is 24, but he has witnessed plenty. A Nevada-based seasonal firefighter, he started battling blazes when he got out of high school. He spent three years on an engine and three more on a helicopter crew. He has fought about 150 fires, including last year's Station Fire in Los Angeles, where he encountered several urban-wildland interfaces.</p>
<p>"They present a whole new set of hazards," says McQueary, who graduated from Saint Mary's in 2008 with a degree in mathematics. "There are lots of things you don't run into when you're in the middle of the country. You're dealing with the accessibility of roads. What's your escape route, will it be changing? Is it going to be crowded if everyone tries to leave at one time? You have someone's house, and an enormous part of their lives personally and financially is wrapped up in that house."</p>
<p>McQueary loves to fight fires, but he might not make it a career.</p>
<p>"It's something I thought I'd never walk away from," he says. "But I'd like to have more day-to-day stability and a set schedule. I might use my degree and teach. Or be an actuary for an insurance company."</p>
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Thu, 01 Apr 2010 07:00:00 +0000cmd67084 at http://www.stmarys-ca.eduMost Influential Women Nominations Requestedhttp://www.stmarys-ca.edu/most-influential-women-nominations-requested
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<div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>With the 40th anniversary of women being admitted to Saint Mary's occuring this year, the SMC Women in Philanthropy Committee is recognizing the 40 most-influential female graduates. The committee is seeking nominations for these women, who will be honored at an event in early November. <br /> Alumni, students, faculty and staff are asked to nominate candidates in one of the following categories:</p>
<ul><li>Demonstrating a commitment to the Lasallian tradition</li>
<li>Overcoming adversity</li>
<li>Showing leadership and influence through their careers</li>
<li>Advocating community building and volunteering</li>
<li>Raising families under challenging circumstances</li>
<li>Demonstrating excellence in athletic pursuits</li>
</ul><p>The nomination deadline is June 30. Nominations may be made at <a href="http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/womeninphil">www.stmarys-ca.edu/womeninphil</a>, or through e-mail to Michele Prisk at <a href="mailto:mpe2@stmarys-ca.edu">mpe2@stmarys-ca.edu</a> or (925) 631-4116.</p>
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Thu, 01 Apr 2010 07:00:00 +0000cmd67083 at http://www.stmarys-ca.eduIn Memoriamhttp://www.stmarys-ca.edu/in-memoriam-1
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<div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><h3>John Kenny '37</h3>
<p><span id="styles-3-0" class="styles file-styles large"> <img class="media-image" id="2" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/06john.jpg?itok=wqK-2HDc" alt="" /></span></p>
<p>John Kenny '37, a yell leader at Saint Mary's during the glory days of football under Slip Madigan, died on Dec. 12, 2009, in Great Falls, Mont. He was 96.</p>
<p>Mr. Kenny, the son of Irish immigrants who was born in the small mining town of Anaconda, Mont., started at Saint Mary's in 1931, but had to interrupt his education for two years to make enough money to finish college during the Great Depression, says his son, Rob Kenny, who attended Saint Mary's during the 1960s. Mr. Kenny also worked as a waiter and janitor in Dante Hall for three years to afford tuition.</p>
<p>In an autobiography, Mr. Kenny wrote that he was "one small, lonely country boy" who soon learned that most of the students, especially the football players, came from poor or moderate-income families.</p>
<p>"The philosophy and values of a Catholic education as exemplified and taught by the Brothers has been a big part of my life," Mr. Kenny concluded. "I am sure that many young men from poor surroundings have the same sentiments."</p>
<p>His son said his father passed along that love of Saint Mary's to his children, frequently telling stories of his college years.</p>
<p>"His closest attachment was to Saint Mary's," Rob Kenny says. "For him, Saint Mary's was the formation of his adult life and his character."</p>
<p>Mr. Kenny's fondest recollection was of his senior year, when he was the head yell leader and stowed away on the special train that Madigan had arranged to transport the Gael football team to play against Fordham in New York. His friends Hugh Sill '37 (later his best man) and Marty Kordick '37 persuaded Madigan not to kick Mr. Kenny off the train by raising money for his fare.</p>
<p>Rob Kenny said his father ended up staying with Brother Albert in the Waldorf Astoria in New York.</p>
<p>After graduating, Mr. Kenny worked for the Great American Insurance Company in San Francisco, served in the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1942 to 1946, and returned to work for the insurance company. He retired in 1975, then served in the Montana Legislature for two years.</p>
<p>Mr. Kenny is survived by his son Rob and daughters Carolyn Wittman and Marcia Solberg, along with their spouses, four grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and many other relatives. He was preceded in death by his wife of 54 years, Edna Marie Kenny.</p>
<p>His family requested that anyone wishing to do so could make a contribution in his name to the Saint Mary's College Annual Fund.</p>
<p><em>–Erin Hallissy </em></p>
<h3><br /> Brothers</h3>
<ul><li>Brother Virgil Evers '48</li>
<li>Brother Raphael-Philip Thez '59</li>
</ul><h3><br /> Alumni</h3>
<ul><li>Hubert Ohman Bower Sr. '54</li>
<li>Robert A. Craft '79</li>
<li>Delett Paul '68</li>
<li>Laurence Ervin '57</li>
<li>Jumoke Horton '97</li>
<li>Stephen Thomas Laird '76</li>
<li>Pamela M. LeMasters EE '97</li>
<li>Marjorie A. Mahoney ECR</li>
<li>Lt. Col. Robert M. Millhauser EE '80</li>
<li>William Phagan '79</li>
<li>Philip Quittman '36</li>
<li>William J. Stephens '34</li>
<li>Dave Swanson '68</li>
<li>John Viera '68</li>
</ul><h3><br /> Family and Friends</h3>
<ul><li>Teresa A. Brusher</li>
<li>Kenneth H. Cardwell, father of Brother Kenneth Cardwell '71</li>
<li>Robert W. Carrau</li>
<li>Francis J. Charlton, Sr.</li>
<li>Douglas Kalani Chun,</li>
<li>brother of Jaylynn Chun '81</li>
<li>and Lezleeann Chun '79</li>
<li>Colby A. Cogswell</li>
<li>Roy E. Disney, father of Roy P. Disney '79</li>
<li>Teresa Dostal</li>
<li>Antonia Flores</li>
<li>Margaret Holbrook</li>
<li>Virginia A. McFarland</li>
<li>Richard Norton, father of Steven Norton '04</li>
<li>Margaret Tuleen, mother of Janet Holbrook '85</li>
<li>Mary Zile, mother of Renee Zile '97 and John Zile '98, mother-in-law of Jaime Zile '98</li>
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Thu, 01 Apr 2010 07:00:00 +0000cmd67082 at http://www.stmarys-ca.eduNew Alumni Director Appointedhttp://www.stmarys-ca.edu/new-alumni-director-appointed
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<p>On March 1, Chris Carter '97, MA '02 was appointed director of the newly renamed Office of Alumni and Volunteer Engagement (forerly Alumni Relations). Carter will lead the College's efforts in alumni and development event programming and coordinate major volunteer initiatives.</p>
<p>"Chris brings the vision and enthusiasm the College needs to advance our alumni and volunteer programs," says Keith Brant, vice president of advancement. "He has excellent relationships with alumni volunteers and campus colleagues."</p>
<p>Carter, who has worked at the College since 2003, was most recently the associate director for alumni relations. He was responsible for the reunion programming (garnering record attendance over the last three years), and was the lead organizer last year for the 50th anniversary re-enactment of the famed 1959 phone booth stuffing.</p>
<p>"We really want to raise the bar and take the alumni experience to the next level," Carter says.</p>
<p>Carter's goals include offering a wider variety of quality events, forming partnerships with stakeholders on campus and with alumni and steering the alumni board of directors into a more strategic role.</p>
<p>Carter and his wife, Katie '97, were married in the Chapel and live in Pleasanton with their three children. Carter says they are all future Gaels.</p>
<p>Follow Carter on Twitter for the latest alumni news: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/97geal">97gael</a>.</p>
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<div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above">
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<div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/chris-carter" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Chris Carter</a></div>
<div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/spring-2010" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Spring 2010</a></div>
<div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/the-quad" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">The Quad</a></div>
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<div class="field-label">Groups audience&nbsp;</div>
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<div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/news-and-events">News and Events</a></div>
<div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/saint-marys-magazine">Saint Mary&#039;s Magazine</a></div>
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Thu, 01 Apr 2010 07:00:00 +0000cmd67081 at http://www.stmarys-ca.eduGiving for Service and Experience http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/giving-for-service-and-experience
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden">
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<div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><em>By Caitlin Graveson '11</em></p>
<p><em><span id="styles-1-0" class="styles file-styles large"> <img class="media-image" id="2" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/03tiffanyhickey.jpg?itok=vq620972" alt="" /></span></em></p>
<p>David Johnson '84 has taken the Lasallian slogan, "Enter to Learn, Leave to Serve," to heart, and as a member of the Alumni Association's board of directors, he wants to both serve students and inspire students' interest in service. Last summer, Johnson worked with Marshall Welch, the director of CILSA, to put together a service internship for a Saint Mary's student.</p>
<p>"I was looking to engage with the College and have a positive impact," Johnson says. "I wanted to offer a student a unique experience to live out the ideals of De La Salle."</p>
<p>Through a contact of Welch, an intensive eight-week service internship in Palmer, Alaska, began to take shape. CILSA connected with the University of Alaska-Anchorage to put together the program, which largely included working with mental health patients. After interviewing multiple Saint Mary's students, Tiffany Hickey, a senior psychology major, was chosen.</p>
<p>"This experience confirmed my career goals and increased my interest in the area of social justice, specifically homelessness and mental health," Hickey says. "I learned so much valuable information about myself, the world, my prospective field of work and the world in general that cannot be taught in a classroom. I know I am stronger for stepping out into a new place alone, and I had the best summer experience of my life thus far."</p>
<p>The same internship in Palmer will be offered to a Saint Mary's student this summer.</p>
<p>Johnson is now working with the Alumni Association to establish an endowment fund which will guarantee the continuance of the program and to take the pressure off of finding funding each year. He wants to ensure that the alumni remain connected to the students and faculty.</p>
<p>"About 10 to 12 years ago, the Alumni Association was really involved with the students and with professors," Johnson says. "This is a chance to rekindle those relationships and alliances to create unique opportunities. At Saint Mary's, there is a chance for students to do things that students at larger institutions wouldn't get." Johnson says.</p>
<p>To learn more or to donate to the program, contact Alumni and Volunteer Relations at (925) 631-4200.</p>
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<div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above">
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<div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/spring-2010" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Spring 2010</a></div>
<div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/the-quad" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">The Quad</a></div>
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<div class="field-label">Groups audience&nbsp;</div>
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<div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/news-and-events">News and Events</a></div>
<div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/saint-marys-magazine">Saint Mary&#039;s Magazine</a></div>
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Thu, 01 Apr 2010 07:00:00 +0000cmd67080 at http://www.stmarys-ca.edu